Carney Should Bar US Firms From Projects as Trade Leverage, Scotiabank’s Holt Says

Canada should consider excluding US companies from major infrastructure and defense projects as part of its response to the Trump administration’s barrage of tariffs, according to a Bank of Nova Scotia economist.

Blocking US firms from billions of dollars in contracts — and giving that business instead to companies in Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America — may help give the government more leverage without having to apply larger retaliatory tariffs, said Derek Holt, the bank’s head of capital markets economics.